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Tonal coach performing a Barbell Front Raise

Push Yourself With the Barbell Front Raise

Target your delts and shoulders with the barbell front raise. Unpack its form and beginner arm incline mistakes, plus overhand and reverse underhand variations.

Ready to challenge your delts, upper shoulders, and upper chest? We give you the barbell front raise.

It may look simple, but the barbell front raise is a testament to how much quiet control is required from muscles to guide this lift.

Many other upper-body strength exercises (e.g. overhead presses) at least partially rely on momentum and multiple joints to complete. By comparison, the barbell front raise can look more focused while still demanding a lot of power from your shoulders and chest.

Beginners often appreciate how steady the setup feels: feet planted, spine long, and the bar rising in a clean arc to shoulder height. Even small shifts though, such as adjusting an overhand grip versus an underhand one, can subtly change how your upper body organizes around the motion. 

Continue below to get a full breakdown of how to do a barbell front raise. From there, continue exploring adjusted versions and variations of this upper body exercise, including things like slight incline variations to re-focus different angles of tension, 

The classic front raise version remains a foundational way to understand front-shoulder mechanics. This guide breaks down each step so you can learn the barbell front raise with both clarity and confidence.

Contents
  1. Barbell Front Raise: Step by Step
  2. Barbell Front Raise: reps & intervals
    1. Average Duration of
    2. Estimated Calories Burned
    3. Recommended Number of exercises Per Week
    4. Warmup & Cool Down Exercises
    3.
  3. Muscle Groups Targeted
  4. Equipment Used for Barbell Front Raise
  5. Who This Exercise is Best For
  6. Answers to FAQs about Barbell Front Raise
  7. Concluding words on Barbell Front Raise

Barbell Front Raise: Step by Step

1. Get in your starting stance.

  • Stand tall with your feet about hip-width apart.
  • Keep a slight soft bend in your knees. This helps prevent knees from locking.
  • Hold the barbell at your thighs with an overhand grip, palms facing the ground, hands shoulder-width apart. 
  • Ensure your wrists are aligned with your forearms. 

Tip: In this guide we primarily refer to using a standard overhand grip, one more attuned to targeting the front delts. Feel free to try out both a standard and reverse underhand grip version, though. Particularly if you find an underhand grip more comfortable.  

2. Set your upper body.

  • Lift up your chest. 
  • Allow your shoulders to relax down and back instead of bunching up toward your ears.
  • Keep your neck neutral and gaze straight forward, not up or down.

3. Start the lift.

  • Begin raising the bar up and out, as if tracing an arc into the air. 
  • Imagine someone gently tugging the bar upward from a string attached at its center.
  • Keep your arms almost straight, with just a soft bend at the elbows.
  • Drive the motion from your lats. 

Tip: Don’t be afraid to start with just the barbell before adding any weight. Starting with too intense of a load can encourage uncontrolled swinging to occur, making the movement less targeted.  

4. Guide the bar to shoulder height.

  • Lift only until the bar reaches level with your shoulders, no higher.

Tip: A barbell front raise should feel like a quiet, controlled arc. It should be slow enough that you could theoretically stop at any point.

5. Pause at the top.

  • Hold for one breath, feeling the front of your shoulders working but not straining.
  • Ensure your back is not arching forward or craning backward.

6. Lower the bar smoothly.

  • Retrace your path at the same pace you lifted it.
  • Think about “placing” the bar back at your thighs rather than dropping it.
  • Keep your ribs stacked with your hips and shoulders so the movement stays primarily in your shoulders, chest, and some parts of your arm — not your lower back.

Reset before the next rep. Shake out your shoulders if needed, especially if you them creeping upward across the lift. Start the next rep when you feel steady. 

Barbell Front Raise: reps & intervals

These rep ranges are general guidelines to help you find the right structure when first trying barbell front raises. Your individual strength level, bar weight, and goals all influence what feels manageable.

  • Muscle growth: 6-20 reps
  • Strength endurance: 8-12
  • Max strength: 3-8

  • Beginner intervals: 2-3 working sets
  • Intermediate intervals: 3-4 working sets

Average Duration of Barbell Front Raise

The timing of your barbell front raises depends, but always stay mindful of your pacing. Some lifters move a bit slower to stay controlled or to increase time under tension. Others keep a naturally crisp rhythm. Either works when done safely with good form.

  • One rep: ~4-6 seconds
  • One set: ~30-60 seconds

Estimated Calories Burned

Remember factors like bar weight, exercise tempo, rest times, and even your arms’ length and anatomy all influence calories burned. 

Below, we've calculated estimated calories burned based on an average-sized adult performing 3 sets of 8 barbell front raises.

  • Women (140-180 lbs): ~15-25 calories
  • Men (170-210 lbs): ~20-35 calories
  • Adults above 210 lbs: ~25-40 calories

Recommended Number of exercises Per Week

Most individuals can perform barbell front raises1x/week, especially on shoulder and chest-focused days. That target can help manage total upper-body training volume and balance overworking the delts when you perform other pulling and pushing movements during the week.

Warmup & Cool Down Exercises

Warming up brings benefits like getting muscles activated before taking on stress, while cooling down can reduce stiffness after repetitive arm lifting.

Warm-Up (choose 1-3):

  • Resistance band pull-aparts (30 sec)
  • Light arm circles (30 sec)
  • Scapular wall slides (30 sec)

Cool-Down (choose 1-3, performed at the end of your full workout):

  • Shoulder cross-body stretch (30 sec each side)
  • Chest doorway stretch (30-60 sec)
  • Gentle foam rolling the front delts (60-120 sec)

Muscle Groups Targeted

The barbell front raise is designed to primarily emphasize the anterior or front delts, especially as the bar travels through the first half (the concentric phase) of the lift. 

The movement also recruits the anterior (back) delts and parts of the upper chest and upper traps for some subtle stabilization, while the core and lower body create a steady base to support the bar’s path.

When these muscles work together for appropriate form, you should be on your way to creating the front raise’s signature controlled arc without any cheating swinging momentum.  

Note: If you experiment with a reverse underhand grip, you may feel slightly different engagement along the arm and front shoulder lines. That’s perfectly normal, particularly to feel some extra challenge in your anterior delts. 

Equipment Used for Barbell Front Raise

The equipment for this exercise is simple, which makes it accessible for beginners exploring new lifts and patterns.

Other front raise substitutes (without a barbell):

  • Dumbbells
  • Water jugs or small weighted objects
  • Resistance band front raise

Who This Workout is Most Effective For
  • Beginners learning basic shoulder-targeting lifts and their mechanics.
  • Anyone exploring several grip changes and their effects (classic overhand, reverse underhand).
  • Individuals looking to expand their rotation of controlled upper-body accessory lifts.

Answers to FAQs about Barbell Front Raise

Yes they can be, when approached with just the barbell to start before adding weighted plates, and of course practicing good form and a controlled tempo. The motion is relatively straightforward and easy to set up, especially as you grow more familiar with a stable torso preventing any swinging.

Beginners should prioritize posture first and load second. Small grip adjustments across overhand versus underhand can also help you identify what feels most natural.

Tonal coaches see the most frequent mistakes often coming down to form putting stress on vulnerable parts of the body.

Things like leaning or arching your back, lifting the bar too high (up to your eyeline, for example) or overextending the wrists can create unnecessary tension.

Always try barbell front raises first with just an unweighted bar, and make sure you’re warmed up and mentally focused.  

Alternatives can include trying dumbbell front raises, single-arm or lateral cable raises, or other shoulder-targeting lifts. 

Likewise, you may also consider exploring the incline barbell front raise, where an adjustable workout bench provides a different approach to this exercise. In particular, the incline version can help isolate those front deltoids and improve coordination while increasing range of motion for certain lifters.

Each alternative still highlights the front delt but with a different rhythm or loading pattern. Choosing between them often comes down to comfort and equipment availability.

They’re simply different. Barbells can offer a steadier-feeling unified arc path, while dumbbells allow each arm to move independently. Some people prefer the stability of a bar, but you may find yourself enjoying the coordination challenge that comes with dumbbells. Both options can support clean form and muscle development. It really depends on what feels most natural to your structure.

Concluding words on Barbell Front Raise

The barbell front raise provides you a solid way to practice steady shoulder control without needing heavy weights or a complex gym setup. 

As you lift and lower the bar, you start noticing how your posture, underhand or overhand grip, and lifting tempo all influence the motion. That kind of awareness can be surprisingly grounding when you’re learning how different upper-body exercises can feel, not to mention improving your overall fitness knowledge.  

Keep pushing yourself and exploring these kinds of movement insights. Tonal’s Resource Hub is here full of 60+ exercise guides, each breaking down new upper and lower-body lifts with the same approachable detail.

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